Nothing Really Changes

When I blogged about volunteering at two River Oaks fundraisers for McCain, I have to admit I was feeling a bit of the elitism of the rich surrounding me.

I know campaigns need money and this is how to raise it, but it's disconcerting nonetheless when homes of wealthy trial lawyers energy company chiefs are the venue.

Wait, those two I mentioned above weren't McCain fundraisers in River Oaks. they were Obama fundraisers.

I guess Obama hopes for money from the same place all politicians get it. I guess the change there isn't a change at all.

So much for the "different" kind of politician.

Polls

Polls at this point don't mean a lot, but they are fun to look at when things are looking good for your side:

30% of conservative Democrats are voting for McCain. This sides with my super scientific polling of white Democrat men. I haven't "polled"one yet that said they would vote for Obama. Many I spoke to said they had never voted Republican their whole life, but they were this time.

I have a feeling that when you mix in the new youth vote all hyped up on Obamania with the disdain many independents are feeling over the celebrity aspect of Obama, we are going to have a very very close race.

Coming Home

Good news.

President Bush announced this morning that beginning tomorrow, US troop tours in Iraq will be reduced from 15 months to 12 months.

"The progress in Iraq has allowed us to continue our policy of return on success," the President said from the Colonnade outside the Oval Office, "We have now brought home all five of the combat brigades and the three Marine units that were sent to Iraq as part of the surge. The last of these surge brigades returned home this month."

Rapper Ludacris wants to be Vice President with Obama

This is one of Obama's favorite rappers!!

"Make the White House Black."

“Hillary hated on you so that b*tch is irrelevant.”

Oh it gets even better when he disses McCain.

Classy stuff.

via HotAir

Is Obama the Paris Hilton of politics?

Like Paris, he looks good, but there isn't much underneath.

I don't know how effective this ad is. But it is true that "celebrity" is what Obama is all about now.

No more pork!

Obama received $1 million dollars a DAY in pork while in the Senate.

McCain received how much pork in his 2 decades in the Senate? That would be ZERO.

McCain promises to veto every single pork barral project bill that comes across his desk and make those responsible "famous."

This is what we need. Stop wasteful spending of our hard earned tax dollars.

via The Partisan Report

"The people of Berlin have spoken."

Can They Admit They Were Wrong?

Rumor has it that Republicans are trying to get McCain to go to ANWR to see for himself the small environmental impact drilling there would have and to see what a big impact it would have on our production of oil.

Obama went to Iraq and still couldn't admit he was wrong about the surge. I wonder if McCain will go to ANWR and admit that he was wrong about drilling there.

It would be nice. We shall see.

The Texas Democratic Convention

From The Texas Democratic Convention @ The Houston Chronicle. I will let this brief video stand without comment. I'll just give you a quote from it: "Why are you here? You're not black."

Funny stuff

Below is a cartoon Gary Varvel, who does great work at National Review. He didn't get to print this one because he held a caption contest for what Obama is saying and the whole Obama speech in Germany was off the newscycle by the time they got some some good ones like, " "I'm embarrassed to be speaking to you in English today," and "I'm not president, but I've played one on TV." Give me some of your own.

This made me laugh...

I'm glad MoveOn.org claimed responsibility at the end or I would have thought it was a spoof making fun of Obama.

You can't tell the reality from goofiness in this campaign season.

Sweet

Despite the Obamamediacrushpaloozaextravaganzacircus, McCain is leading Obama among likely voters.

All that stage work, props, and choreography and the show still isn't that good.

Obama's Wailing wall prayer was pre-approved for publication.

If this is true, then any respect that I had for Obama (and yes, I had some) and his campaign is gone:

From the Israeli Insider:

What initially seemed to be a journalistic scoop of dubious moral propriety now seems to be a case of an Israeli paper being played by the Barack Obama campaign. Maariv, the second most popular newspaper in Israel, was roundly criticized for publishing the note Obama left in the Kotel. But now a Maariv spokesperson says that publication of the note was pre-approved for international publication by the Obama campaign, leading to the conclusion that the "private" prayer was intentionally leaked for public consumption.
.......

A Ma'ariv spokesman was quoted in the Jerusalem Post as saying that "Barack Obama's note was approved for publication in the international media even before he put in the Kotel, a short time after he wrote it at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem." The paper added that is was "pleased" with its "journalistic accomplishment." It appears that Obama made Maariv an instrument of his will. The paper, of course, was a most willing tool.

A prayer as a campaign prop.

Color me not surprised.

Jesse Ventura

I'm reading his book. He is so clever and funny. So macho.

I just saw him on Hannity and Colmes.

He makes me want to puke.

Can we please stop electing frickin wrestlers to public office. They are worst than lawyers. And that is saying a lot.

Obama: the Ex-Colored Man?

I read a piece in National Review by Jay Nordlinger about the jazz singer Renee Marie who substituted the national anthem with what is known as "the Negro national hymn" at a ceremony in Denver where the mayor gives a 'State of the City" speech.

Let's get the obvious out of the way first. No matter what Renee Marie chose to sing, it was beyond rude to switch the song that she was suppose to sing. It simply wasn't her call. But everyone seemed to make a big deal out of it in a patriotic way. At the time I looked at the words of the song she sang that day, "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," and thought it a beautiful song. I was sort of bewildered at what kind point Renee Marie was trying to make because the song spoke of such a love of this country, so it wasn't some dig at America.

Reading Renee Marie's bio on her website, it seems she does have mixed feelings. In a 2007 interview with a Russian newspaper she said she almost felt compelled to tell them she wasn't American. She said she didn't feel American. She basically says that the injustice that was a part of the black experience for her growing up under the Jim Crow laws made her question the words of all the patriotic songs that she sang in church growing up. I guess she had never been proud of her country until now. That seems familiar to me, but I just can't place it...;-)

In the National Review piece, Nordlinger researches the history the song "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing." It was written 108 years ago by James Weldon Johnson (music was written by his brother) for a Lincoln birthday celebration. Whatever injustices that Renee Marie experienced growing up (and I don't want to minimize them, they were indeed harsh) one can safely say that as a black man who lived between 1871-1938, injustice was even more profound in a society that had barely left slavery behind. Johnson was a part of the Harlem Renaissance. He was a lawyer, politician, song writer, and an educator among other things. But it is obvious to me in his lyrics that he deeply loved this country. I don't think that he would have questioned whether he was American or not.

I have always been fascinated by the Harlem Renaissance in the early 1900's. Blacks asserted their independence with their own enclave of literature, drama, music, visual art, and dance. Years ago I watched a documentary of it with actual film footage of the time. It seemed to me the black community knew they weren't allowed to compete in the white world, so they made their own world. And it really was quite a wonderful world.

Now, I'm going to connect a few seemingly unrelated things here because I just find them interesting. After the brouhaha of the Renee Marie thing, Obama was asked about this Negro anthem and he said, "We have only one national anthem." Obama wouldn't even utter the words, "The Negro National Anthem." Not long after that, as you might recall, Jesse Jackson had some pretty harsh things to say about how Obama "talked down to N***gers"

Well, it just so happens that this same man who wrote the Negro anthem, James Weldon Johnson, also wrote a book called "The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man." According to Wikipedia this book "is the fictional telling of the story of a young biracial man, referred to only as the “Ex-Colored Man." "The Ex-Colored Man was forced to choose between embracing his black heritage and culture by expressing himself through the African-American musical genre ragtime, or by "passing" and living obscurely as a mediocre middle-class white man."

Reading through the plot it seems the Ex-Colored man is torn between his two heritiages, white and black. He is raised in a different environment than most other blacks. After seeing a lynching, the Ex-Colored man decides that when it comes to his race he simply wishes to remain neutral. The Ex-Colored Man declares that he “would neither disclaim the black race nor claim the white race.”

The book is about a black man "passing" as a white man. Which is certaintly not what Obama is doing. But the part about neither disclaiming the black race nor claiming the white race struck me.

Obama never seems to embrace his black heritage to me. And he never mentions or looks at himself as being white in any way other than to reference his mother's family.

And this may be what made Jesse Jackson so angry. Does it anger a "Colored man" to look at an "Ex-Colored man" doing so well? Maybe only if one thinks of themselves like that? Because clearly black men in general don't feel that way.

Who do we trust on the WOT?

Everyone is talking about Obama's and McCain's "timetables" or "horizons" of our troops getting out of Iraq. Obama says McCain has come closer to his position of 16 months and McCain says that Obama has changed his position to deciding factors on the ground.

Obama said this: "Iraq force will be 'entirely conditions-based. It's hard to anticipate where we may be six months from now."

McCain said this when asked why McCain thought Maliki said that 16 months was pretty good timetable: "He said it's a pretty good timetable based on conditions on the ground. I think it's a pretty good timetable, as we should -- or horizons for withdrawal. But they have to be based on conditions on the ground."

So basically McCain and Obama are saying the same thing. They will get the troops out as soon as possible, but everything hinges on conditions on the ground.

Now, this has always been what McCain position. I don't think any of us think McCain will pull our troops out if commanders say they are still needed. We know this.

What we don't know about Obama is if he saying these things for political purposes only. Given that things are still not perfect in Iraq, we need someone who understands this.

But to me, it puts the Iraq situation off the table for now as far as the candidates go. They seem to agree. It may make the base of the Democratic party angry with Obama, but they aren't going anywhere and he knows it. He can afford to look all hawkish now.

So given that the two candidates are basically saying the same thing there, the only questions are who would we trust to move forward in the war on terror? Who would we trust to handle ongoing violence? Who would we trust if another terrorist attack occurred? Who was right on what to do to bring Iraq to this successful conclusion?

Who would you trust to know what to do?

There is simply no question to who that is. John McCain.

10 Things I Love About The South

1) The world can be falling down around them, death, destruction, even nuclear holocaust, and Southern women will have their hair and makeup done. Just because your miserable doesn't mean you can't look good.

2) When you ask someone in the South, "how are you?", they don't say "I'm fine." They usually answer with a wildly entertaining story.

3) You can buy boiled salty wonderful peanuts off just about any road in the South.

4) Trees. Trees. Trees.

5) Southerners love their animals. They love their horses, dogs, and cats. They also love to eat whatever animal isn't one of those.

6) While many Americans drink because they want to forget life, Southerners drink to enjoy life. And they do. Drink. Alot.

7) Blue Dog Democrats. Yes, these are Democrats I actually like because when asked about Obama over in Europe they say things like, "Well, I hope everyone in Germany votes for him."

8) Everybody knows everybody's business. The Internet still does not compare to the gossip grapevine of the South.

9) When driving through neighborhoods or slow streets in town, everyone waves at you. And then they turn to each other say, "Who is that and why is she driving Bobby's truck?" And in about 30 minutes everyone knows you're in town. Even the ones who don't know you.

10) Restaurants tend to be family owned and the food melts in your mouth. When you ask for tea, they ask, "Regular or sweet?" If you say sweet they know you are from here.

Still more of a Jewish problem with Obama

From The Jerusalem Post:

As for the campaign-financed (not official) Israel leg of Obama's trip, the visuals were fine, at first. But Jews the world over gagged on their breakfasts this morning seeing the newspaper and Drudge Report photos of multiple Obama campaign banners and posters tactlessly defiling the area of Jerusalem's Western Wall. This shameless usurpation of Judaism's holiest site for use as a cheap political prop is embarrassing, and not going to go over well. If God already endorsed Obama - which Obama may believe - I must have missed it. One can only imagine how such a stunt would have gone over at the Vatican. Or in Mecca.

Obama's Israel sound-bites were solid. When he stuck to his scripted remarks, he sounded decent. But McCain has been visiting Israel for 30 years; he knows the area and the issues without consulting his briefing book.

Obama's trip is merely a calculated campaign photo-op designed to make him appear experienced. His image-enhancement was devoid of any real substance-actually, not a bad metaphor for his entire campaign for amorphous "change." Even his visit with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, which his campaign preposterously claims "one-ups" McCain, was just a campaign-financed meeting, not an official visit.

Country First

Obama's Jewish Problem

Kathyrn Jean Lopez over at NRO interviewed Caroline B. Glick, who is the deputy managing editor of the Jerusalem Post and the senior fellow for Middle East Affairs at the Center for Security Policy.

Read the whole thing, but two things Glick said stood out to me:

Glick: Obama acts like a European leader in his treatment of Israel. On the one hand, he professes this profound respect for Israel and the Jews, and goes on and on about how our security is important to him. On the other hand, he espouses policies that undermine Israeli security and threaten its survival, and demands that the Jewish state become the only state that turns its other cheek towards our enemies as they try to kill us. This is the same sort of message that we hear from all Europeans leaders. And it is tiresome and insulting.
.......
Lopez: Does Obama have it? (a commitment to Israel)

Glick: No, Obama doesn’t have it. His statements about Iraq being a “diversion” alone are proof that he fundamentally refuses to acknowledge that there is a global jihad raging, that Israel is a frontline state in the jihad and that the U.S. cannot allow jihadists to gain control of any territory and particularly territory as strategically vital as Iraq or Jerusalem and the West Bank. Obama is a quintessential leftist who thinks that war can be wished away by blaming the U.S. for its enemies’ hatred and malicious designs. This is the type of person who will push very hard not only for America to stand down from the war and ask the Iranians for forgiveness while enabling them to get the bomb, but will blame Israel for the Arab world’s refusal to accept its right to exist.

Obama's prayer that he stuck in the wailing wall was taken and given to the press, which is wrong and disturbing. But almost as disturbing to me is the fact that the prayer was obviously written with the intent of it being given to the press. You can read the prayer at the link. I don't feel that comfortable publishing here myself.

It doesn't get any funnier than this...

The right person just has to write it. Here is a taste:

And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.

The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.

The Dark Knight and the WOT

I saw The Dark Knight last night and yes, it is as good as everyone says it is. And yes, Heath Ledger's performance of The Joker is Oscar worthy.

As I was watching it, I kept trying to keep out of my head that the movie was swimming in metaphors about the war on terror. I tell myself that I am obsessed with world events and I can't keep seeing things through that prism. I tell myself to just enjoy the frickin movie.

Well, I am not the only one who saw the Dark Knight as a metaphor for Bush and his courage to fight the war on terror despite being hated for it.

Andrew Klavan of the WSJ says this:

There seems to me no question that the Batman film "The Dark Knight," currently breaking every box office record in history, is at some level a paean of praise to the fortitude and moral courage that has been shown by George W. Bush in this time of terror and war. Like W, Batman is vilified and despised for confronting terrorists in the only terms they understand. Like W, Batman sometimes has to push the boundaries of civil rights to deal with an emergency, certain that he will re-establish those boundaries when the emergency is past.

That seemed obvious with wall of computer screens at Bruce Wayne's home that were "spying on every one in Gotham City" through their cell phone or some sort of sonar. The character of the scientist played Morgan Freedman says he will do it this once during this crisis and then resign, and as he does the screens blow up.

Message to Bush: When we have defeated these monsters, the wiretapping thing has to go.

Then there is The Joker telling Batman that his problem is that has "rules" and the Joker has "no rules." Yeah. Guess who else doesn't have any "rules?" The terrorists. The movie even used the word "terrorists" a few times.

Not too get too deep here (I know, I know..it's just a movie!) But I have to write about my favorite part of the movie. If you haven't seen it, this won't give anything away and if you have, then you will know what I am talking about.

It's when the prisoner tells the policeman on the ferry to give him the device and he will do what the policeman should have done 10 minutes earlier. Which turns out to be the right thing.

Omg....I love it when people do the right thing.

The movie is just full of scenes that stir in us thoughts of what is good and evil and how we define it. Are we all susceptible to it? When do we become as bad as what we are fighting? Do the ends justify the means? At one point The Joker says, "everyone says I'm crazy, but I'm just ahead of the curve."

When I was young I read William Golding's "Lord of the Flies." I cried and cried at towards the end at this line:

"Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy."

It was the first time in my life that I thought about how easy it could be for us to lose our sense of morality and become animals. Since then I have learned a great deal about the darkness of man's heart, but I have also learned that in all of our history, man has also managed to bring the light out of the darkness. Even in the blackness that was the Holocaust, good people stood steadfast in the goodness of man's heart.

Yeah, it's just a movie. It's just a comic book movie, but it's a dang good one if it makes contemplate such things.

h/t BigDog

Funny

I am currently at home in Mississippi, so I found it amusing that I find this on boing boing while here. This is part of a series of short films created by Mississippi Public Broadcasting on how to use the library. The funny part is the idea that they are in a post-apocalyptic world roaming the earth in a bookmobile. Imagine my surprise when I recognized the girl playing Margaret (orange jumpsuit) as a girl I did a play with in college. I'm guessing these were made around 1977.

Where in the world is Hillary Clinton?

On the plane Wednesday I read a Vanity Fair piece about the Hillary primary campaign. Basically it was infighting and Bill that brought things down. It was all pretty brutal.

Last we heard Hillary said she would work hard for Obama. So where the heck is she?

I did actually get to feeling sorry for Hillary at the end there. It seemed everyone she counted on abandoned her. Now things are even worse. Her biggest fan and backer, Terry McAuliffe suggested to a crowd of Virginia Democrats this week that Gov. Tim Kaine would be the best choice for Obama's V.P. pick.

Ouch.

Last I heard she was speaking to the American Federation of Teachers in Chicago on July 12th. Has anyone seen her lately? In addition to that, the big donors to the Hillary campaign aren't exactly rushing with their cash to Obama .

According to BizJournal, fewer than 3 percent of Clinton's top donors have given any money to the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Also, this interesting tidbit:

Lynn, Lady de Rothschild, one of Clinton's biggest supporters, has started a web site that aims to place Clinton's name into the nominating process at the convention. Lady de Rothschild, like many Hillraisers, is reluctant to support Obama.

Where is Hillary? I don't know. Maybe plotting?

The before picture

For those of you who were wondering what the Obama plane with the American flag looked like before they changed it to the "O" symbol, here ya go.

Please...

Obama implies to Fox News reporter that Bush directs the TV's on Armed Forces television to be on Fox News

I just love it when Gretchen Carlson gets all indignant. She does it so well.

Forget the troops...

I must face my adoring crowd!

Is it just me or is that poster a little creepy?

NRO Campaign Spot can't figure out which words are from Obama's speech or from the song "We Are The World." Can you? Heh.

Let's break it down...

Obama was wrong.

A Dying Endorsement

(CNN) — Support for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama to extend to death row Wednesday.

According to The Jackson Clarion Ledger, a Mississippi newspaper, death row inmate Dale Leo Bishop's final words before being executed Wednesday night included an appeal to Americans to vote for the Illinois senator.

"For those who oppose the death penalty and want to see it end, our best bet is to vote for Barack Obama because his supporters have been working behind the scenes to end this practice," Bishop said, according to the paper.

Really? Obama's supporters are working behind the scenes while Obama says this in front of the cameras?

"I have said repeatedly that I think that the death penalty should be applied in very narrow circumstances for the most egregious of crimes,"

You mean they are saying one thing to our face and advocating another behind our back?

Just another day in Obamaland.

Zu viel zu früh

Obama isn't getting to speak in Germany at Brandenburg Gate to make a dramatic speech as John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan did. I guess he couldn't "speak that into being."

But since symbolism is everything, Obama is doing the next best thing. He is speaking in front of "the Siegess'e (victory column) monument — or "Goldelse" ("Goldlizzie"), as Berliners affectionately dub it because of a golden statue of the goddess of victory that crowns the monument."

I really do believe that this over the top thing that Obama and the media is participating in, is going to backfire. I don't think it's just Jesus that is rolling his eyes at all this.

First political ad on MTV and it's against Obama

There is some sweet irony there. Imo political ads on MTV are a waste of time. Unless Tila Tequila is running for President, this generation doesn't much care. Oh, they may swoon for Obama for now, but they will be too hung over to vote on election day.

Did any of you watch Jay Leno's interviews on the street last night? He interviewed the MTV generation and as funny as it was, it was also embarrassing. No one knew who the Vice President was. One didn't even know who the President was. The funniest/saddest was one who thought Nancy Pelosi was someone in prison for embezzlement and another thought she was a porn star. Heh.

Obama: Speak It Into Being

Once I was speaking with a black friend of mine who had been interviewed to be a manager at a company that day. I asked him about it. He said, "I am the manager." I said, "Oh, you already heard from them?" He said," No, but I am speaking it into being."

After *cough/laughing* about this and saying, "Say what?", I found that this was a belief practiced at his Church and it was a common way of thinking and believing in the black church in general. The idea is to speak to what you want in your life and make it real, make it happen. Speak it into being.

It occurred to me today that that is perhaps exactly what Obama is doing. From his "presidential seal" to his trip to the Middle East it seems Obama is telling us that he is already President. He is speaking it.

As the Politico reports:

From the saturated media coverage to the one-on-one meetings with heads of state, the trip already had a White House feel. The scope of the traveling staff simply adds to an aura of a president-in-waiting. On Tuesday, aides attempted to invoke White House rules and traditions by requiring reporters to withhold the names of senior advisers who brief the press. But they were reminded twice by reporters that they were not in the White House and that Obama was not the president.

It explains alot of the seeming arrogance of this campaign. It explains the staging of everything Obama does. It isn't that they want him to look Presidential. He is Presidential. He is the President.

The truth of the matter is Obama's experience in no way compares to McCain's. What Obama knows he has, that McCain doesn't, is star power. He is using it effectively. But in the end I don't believe that the future of this country will be put in the hands of a political star that is good with words, but bad at policy. Who speaks in platitudes and compromises that are the opposite of everything that he has actually promoted in his life.

Let Obama try to speak it into being.

Let's vote it into not being.

Drill some sense into Democrats

When it comes to drilling (and I know a bit about it), I couldn't figure out lately whether Democrats were liars or just ignorant. I think it's a little of the latter and a lot of the former.

If I hear one more Democrat whine about the leased land that isn't being used to drill I will scream. Ask yourself this basic simple question. If an oil company has a lease on land with oil there, why wouldn't they have already drilled there? Does that make any sense?

The reasons could be that there may not be enough oil and gas to make it worth the enormous cost or there isn't any at all. It may be regulations a mile long that make it impossible. Don't even get me started on lawsuits over whales and cows. Drilling is always a gamble. There isn't a stick you can put into the ground that tells you that there is oil there. It's a complicated and expensive process just to see if there is oil there. There is a reason Petroleum engineers make good money. They are paid to figure it out.

There has never been a better time to fight for more drilling. The Democrats are faced with a public that is demanding it. Politico reports on a "gang of 10," five Republicans and five Democrats trying to hash out a plan.

But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) predicted Tuesday that 12 Democratic senators would join Republicans in voting to lift the offshore drilling ban if given the opportunity to do so.

But Democratic leaders are doing all they can to prevent a vote on drilling before members leave town in two weeks.

No one is working harder than John Boehner:

Republican House Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio returned Monday night from a trip to Colorado and Alaska, where he and a group of freshman GOP lawmakers traveled to show support for alternative energy approaches as well as oil drilling in ANWR.

He's hitting the news shows and he is making the case and he's doing a great job at it.

I laugh when I hear people whine about "Big Oil." Big oil is what keeps us warm in the winter, cool in the summer. It runs our factories, it runs our towns, it runs our cars, it runs our planes. Stop using those things if you don't like "Big Oil."

Oil has come a long way as far as environmental concerns go and they environmentalists know it. There is minimal environmental impact with drilling now.

We all know we have to look at alternative energy sources. T. Boone Pickens says we can't drill our way out of this problem. Maybe not, but we drill our way out of suffering while we develop what we need.

I'll be traveling today!

I'll be back later!

Edward's Love Child?

At first glance the John Edwards/Mistress/Love child story seems too tabloid to be true (and it was the National Inquirer that broke the story a year ago and everyone ignored it), but it looks pretty bad from here.

Imagine if Edwards had gotten the nomination? Wow. A presidential candidate whose wife has cancer and encouraged him to run anyway for the good of the country (because we need men like this, don't you know), and he gets his mistress pregnant in the middle of it all. Now he is caught visiting his love child.

Gee, it's like we're France or something.

Now, nothing surprises me any more. Especially when it comes to power and sex.

You have to feel sorry for Elizabeth on this one. A sorry tale. A sorry husband.

"The Obama Effect"

The Trailer.

From Politico:

Right-wing provocateur and well-known Clinton antagonist David Bossie says he will premiere a documentary critical of presidential candidate Barack Obama in Denver on the Sunday before the Democratic National Convention.

Expected to recycle the “greatest hits” of cable TV clips that damaged Obama’s candidacy, from the wailing of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright to Michelle Obama’s “proud of my country” gaffe, the project from Bossie’s group Citizens United released an online trailer over the weekend and is being advertised on Fox News this week. It will be released on DVD nationwide Sept. 1.

I don't know how effective these things are. It seems too contrived with the flipping screens and all that. I am so sick of Obama at this point that I don't even want to see anything about him, critical or not.

It seems to me just a straight forward review of Obama's past record, flip/flops, and questionable ties is all we need.

Follow me on twitter..

I've just started getting into it. I'm Rightwingsparkl there, without the "e." I guess they only allow 15 characters. Anyway, I'll see you on twitter!

Kewl...

I was picked up by the Chicago Sun Times last week and missed it!

Picked up by Rueters too. It's so cool to see that.

Check out this photo..

From the AFP at YahooNews!

Palestinian artist Walid Ayyub makes the final touches on a portrait for US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama at his shop in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

I can't imagine why they chose this angle for the picture....

I've been interviewed

Pretty cool. Moms In The Right.

Obama Love

Even those across the pond call this a circus

AFP photo

Iraqis underwhelmed by media circus for Barack Obama visit

Meanwhile even the left leaning media is concerned about the nice tightly wrapped package that is the Obama tour in the Middle East. There is simply no way the campaign was going to allow a mistake. They were not going to allow the free flow style of McCain:


MITCHELL: Let me just say something about the message management. He didn’t have reporters with him, he didn’t have a press pool, he didn’t do a press conference while he was on the ground in either Afghanistan or Iraq. What you’re seeing is not reporters brought in. You’re seeing selected pictures taken by the military, questions by the military, and what some would call fake interviews, because they’re not interviews from a journalist. So, there’s a real press issue here. Politically it’s smart as can be. But we’ve not seen a presidential candidate do this, in my recollection, ever before.
***
MATTHEWS: Let me ask you about access to the troops, Andrea. A lot of African-American faces over there, very happy, delighted faces. Is that a representation of the percentage of servicepeople who are African-American, or did they all choose to join someone they like, apparently? What’s the story?

MITCHELL: I can’t really say that. Being a reporter who was not present in any of those situations, I just cannot report on what was edited out, what was, you know, on the sidelines. That’s my issue. We don’t know what we are seeing.

via PW and Newsbusters

I also noted, as did others, that the volunteer greets in Afghanistan for Obama seemed to lack "diversity." Most of the faces were black. Why was that? I found it curious. After those initial meetings I suppose someone in the campaign noticed this and Obama started meeting with unit formations. Because it is all about the presentation here folks.

Obama thinks he is already the President

Or at least his advisors think so. Good grief.

At a morning background briefing, reporters parried with senior advisers on the characterization of Obama’s speech Thursday in Berlin as a campaign rally. The outdoor speech at the Victory Column could draw thousands of people, similar to the size of Obama events in the United States.

“It is not going to be a political speech,” said a senior foreign policy adviser, who spoke to reporters on background. “When the president of the United States goes and gives a speech, it is not a political speech or a political rally.

“But he is not president of the United States,” a reporter reminded the adviser.

“He is going to talk about the issues as an individual … not as a candidate, but as an individual, as a senator,” the adviser added.

The ego of this campaign is starting to get on my last nerve.

The Surge Worked

Yet Obama says if he had to do it all over again, he still wouldn't support it. In other words, defeat would have been just fine.

TERRY MORAN: The surge of U.S. troops, combined with ordinary Iraqis' rejection of both al Qaeda and Shiite extremists have transformed the country. Attacks are down more than 80% nationwide. U.S. combat casualties have plummeted, five this month so far, compared with 78 last July, and Baghdad has a pulse again. If you had to do it over again, knowing what you know now, would you — would you support the surge?

OBAMA: No, because — keep in mind that —MORAN: You wouldn't?

OBAMA: Well, no, keep — these kinds of hypotheticals are very difficult. Hindsight is 20/20. I think what I am absolutely convinced of is that at that time, we had to change the political debate, because the view of the Bush administration at that time was one that I just disagreed with…"

Meanwhile, for once, McCain isn't letting Obama get away with it:

When you win wars, troops come home," McCain said. "He's been completely wrong on the issue. ... I have been steadfast in my position."
......

And McCain continued assaulting Obama's record of not supporting the surge of additional troops to Iraq, a strategy that McCain championed and that observers say has helped drive down violence.
"I'm proud that I was right," McCain said. "....That's what judgment is all about. That's why I'm qualified to lead."

Unfortunately for McCain, amid the media Obama crush train, there isn't much attention being given to the truth. I hope McCain is putting together a campaign ad highlighting the fact that Obama was wrong and would have brought our boys home in defeat. It can wait until closer to the election, but it has to be done.

Batman arrested..

..for assaulting his Mom and sister?

They don't make superheros like they used to.

Obama removes American flag from his campaign jet

He replaces it with trademark "O" symbol.

I'm shocked.

Actually I'm shocked he constantly gets away this stuff.

Check this out

How famous are you online?

It's called a Vanity Validator. (Scroll down just a bit)

Using Google's PageRank technology, you can scan trusted sites to measure your Internet fame on a scale of 1 (unknown) to 100 (ubiquitous).

I typed in Kathleen McKinley and got a score of 52. Not bad. Rightwingsparkle got a 46.

The NYT refuses to print McCain editorial

So here it is. You gotta love the blogosphere sometimes. via MVRWC

Update: HotAir has the e-mail from the NYT sent to McCain on why they can't publish it.

McCain to announce V.P. this week?

My drinking buddy, Robert Novak says so:

Sources close to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign are suggesting he will reveal the name of his vice presidential selection this week while Sen. Barack Obama is getting the headlines on his foreign trip. The name of McCain's running mate has not been disclosed, but Mitt Romney has led the speculation recently.

Not a good idea in my opinion. But we all know McCain listens to no one and he always seems to do just fine.

via Patrick Ruffini

The Tax Man

I always wondered what would be an effective and funny way of illustrating to young people how ridiculous and overburdened we are with taxes. I saw this video at the RightOnline.com blogger summit. I think it does the trick.

Just when I think dogs cannot be more awesome....

Dogs to parachute into war zones

An undisclosed number of German Shepherds are being trained to jump out of airplanes at 25,000 feet.
They will be strapped to members of the SAS, fitted with oxygen masks and will be sent to countries like Afghanistan.
The Ministry of Defence has not revealed what tasks they will perform but it is thought they may be used to sniff out explosives.
They may also prove useful for searching confined spaces.
BBC defence correspondent Paul Adams said dogs were first parachuted into combat zones as early as World War II, but that these dogs will be a breed apart.

ABC's Terry Moran gets the Obama interview in Iraq

The only one Obama will be giving in Iraq.

In case you aren't aware of it, Terry is the brother of Rick Moran of Right Wing Nut House.

Well, duh...

Belief Growing That Reporters are Trying to Help Obama Win

Are illegal immigrant enforcment laws working?

I was reading this article in the WaPo regarding the enforcement campaign against employers who knowingly hire illegals. The article complains of high costs but limited results.

It seems to me that if the "results" we are looking for is less illegal immigration, then we are doing better than ever. Although employers who do hire illegals should be punished, the real goal is stopping illegals from getting jobs here in the first place. So I looked around.

In El Paso Texas illegal immigrants crossings have dropped dramatically. In 1992, the sector's agents apprehended nearly 286,000 illegal border crossers. The end-of-year total this year is expected to be about 34,000.

Let that sink in for a second. Just in El Paso alone going from 286,000 in one year to 34,000 in one year.

This article from Dec. of 2007 describes how illegals are packing up and self deporting in Arizona because of the new laws.

Last year, Oklahoma's Legislature passed the nation's toughest law on illegal immigrants, making it a felony to harbor, transport, shelter or conceal undocumented immigrants. It also gave police authority to check the immigration status of anyone arrested (can you believe that wasn't allowed before???) This summer the law also also allows U.S. citizens to sue employers if they think they were fired in favor of illegal workers.

Since this law was passed in Oklahoma, the Greater Tulsa Hispanic Chamber of Commerce says that 15,000-25,000 illegal immigrants have left Tulsa County alone.

In the past two years, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia and Oklahoma have refused in-state tuition benefits to students who entered the USA illegally with their parents. South Carolina became the first state to bar undocumented students from all public colleges and universities. In May North Carolina's community colleges ordered its 58 campuses to stop enrolling undocumented students after the state attorney general said admitting them may violate federal law.

Something is working my friends. Maybe we aren't punishing the employers as we should, but the illegal workers are getting the message. You won't hear much about the success of laws like Oklahoma, but for those living in these areas, the success is obvious.

Dr. Dobson is coming around....

Most bloggers and readers I know don't really care what Dr. James Dobson thinks, but you are being politically naive to think that his opinion doesn't matter. Among evangelicals, it matters a great deal. These religious values voters (of which I am one) pay a great deal of attention to respected leaders like Dobson. So this is significant when it comes to the crucial votes we need to win this thing:

"I never thought I would hear myself saying this," Dobson said in a radio broadcast to air Monday. "... While I am not endorsing Senator John McCain, the possibility is there that I might."
.......

There's nothing dishonorable in a person rethinking his or her positions, especially in a constantly changing political context," Dobson said in a statement to the AP. "Barack Obama contradicts and threatens everything I believe about the institution of the family and what is best for the nation. His radical positions on life, marriage and national security force me to reevaluate the candidacy of our only other choice, John McCain."

Rising Star

There is this politican. He is black, charasmatic, and intelligent. Now that may sound like Obama, but this guy happens to be right on all the issues, instead of wrong like Obama.

Meet Michael Williams, Chairman of the Railroad Commission of Texas. He spoke at the RightOnline blogger summit this weekend. Keep an eye on this guy.

Al Gore Hypocrisy Video

Kentucky Progress reminded me of this video shown at the conference.

Hilarious. So typical of the left mind set. Lecture us, but live they way they wish.

More Pics

Melissa had some more pictures. Michael Steele spoke and told his amazing story of a single low income mother determined to raise him without government assistance. Melissa caught a picture with him. The last picture is with Eric Peterkofsky who produces the Newsbuster's video below. You can find them at Newsbusted. These funny videos come out every Tues and Friday and I could kick myself for not sharing them with you before. They are very funny.

I am having so much fun!

Sorry I didn't let you guys know that I left for Austin for RightOnline blogger summit. It has been a blast. I will tell you all about when I get home tomorrow. I went drinking with Bob Novak (I have pictures!!!) I got a picture with Barry Goldwater Jr. I got great pics with so many of my Cotillion sisters!


Stay tuned!

Obama Changes Information on Website

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama's aides have removed criticism of President Bush's increase of troops to Iraq from the campaign website
.........

As first reported Tuesday by the New York Daily News, Obama's campaign removed a reference to the surge as part of "The Problem" section on the part of his website devoted to laying out his plan for Iraq. The change was part of many broader changes that Obama spokeswoman Wendy Morigi said were made to reflect current conditions.

Also new: A description of Obama's plan as "a responsible, phased withdrawal" that will be directed by military commanders and done in consultation with the Iraqis. Previously, the site had a sentence, since removed, that flatly said, "Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq."

Given without comment. I mean, is any needed?

Ummm......

A partner at Covington & Burling who represents 15 Guantanamo detainees took off his pants at a news conference in Yemen on Monday to illustrate the humiliating strip searches that his clients have to endure several times a day, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports.

Well, looking at that picture is torture, so are we even here?

Here is what Mr. Underwear had to say:

So at the news conference, I said that, in addition to this torment, which has become so typical that we don’t even talk about it anymore, now the torment also consists of constant body searches in which the men are required to pull their shirts up to their chest, drop their pants, and then the corn-fed U.S. military sticks their thumbs under the prisoner’s underwear band and circles the prisoner’s torsos.”

Just a couple of thoughts.

Corn-fed? What kind of insult is that suppose to be?

I'm thinking the soldiers who take their thumbs and circle the prisoner's torsos aren't so fond of that procedure either.

In other words, a day in the war on terror ain't fun for anyone involved.

Look, I think of myself as a compassionate person. I don't believe in or condone torture, but I just find it hard to take seriously people like this lawyer.

I have lawyers in my family so I hear the whole "everyone deserves representation" speech ad nauseum. But I always wonder when I read stories like this if lawyers like this one couldn't find some abused child in the U.S to represent. Maybe a victim of domestic abuse? I guess my point is isn't there enough people being victimized here the U.S. to represent that might be a bit more...I don't know....innocent?

The infamous "N" word.

It's no surprise to me that Jesse Jackson used the "N" word when talking about Obama the other day. In case you haven't heard, in addition to wanting to cut Obama's n*ts off," Jesse had this to say about Obama:
"he’s talking down to black people…telling n—s how to behave."

It seems some Internet spy of some sort let that leak out. It also seems O'Reilly and Fox News had this tape (which was taped at the same time as the "cut the n*ts off" comment) and didn't deem to release it. I'm sure CNN or the other networks would have shown the same courtesy to a rightwinger, right?? Right.

Anyway, yes it is hypocritical. Yes, it is crude. It is also common. If you are around young people at all, you hear it all the time. My 15 yr old's best friends are black and I am constantly having to tell them to knock it off. They use the "N" word as an insult and as an endearment. It's ridiculous and it drives me insane. It doesn't seem to matter how much I lecture them on what that word meant when I was growing up or how their parents fought against it being used. It just doesn't matter. They don't see it that way.

Now, Jesse Jackson is no teenager, but he uses the slang that is common.

There is this double layer of hypocrisy here. If a leader or official or teacher uses this word, it's over for him or her. Yet we not only allow the "N" word in music, the artists make platinum records off of it. It's common in movies. No one says a word.

We reap what we sow. If we saturate society with crude language, then crude language is what we are going to get.

Besides, didn't Jesse Jackson lose any credibility he had left when he cheated on his wife, fathered an illegitimate child, all the while acting as a Reverend and"counseling" Bill Clinton on his infidelity?

The War We Weren't Suppose To Win

Greyhawk at Mudville has such a good post up I want you to read the whole thing. His perspective on the war is something I have depended on greatly during my time of blogging. He was always fair, always honest in his assessment. But most importantly....he was boots on the ground. He was there.

Milblogs gave us a window into this war that was amazing in that nothing like that was possible in wars before. It wasn't some journalist giving his opinion or reporting. It was men and women fighting the fight and opening up their world to us. There were no starry eyed posts. There were no political rantings. There was just real stories of battles, of friends lost, of determination, of sadness, and of bravery. It has seemed as if I could feel the ebb and flow of the war reading the Milblogs. I knew when things were going badly and I knew when things were looking up. It was in their writings and in the honesty born of their sacrifice.

God, I love them. Our Warriors.

But, back to Greyhawk. He writes of getting ready for his second deployment to Iraq:

As we went from the hospital to the dentist to finance to all the other fine locations you must clear in order to prove that you really really want to go to Iraq we noticed every television in every waiting room tuned to the news story of the century: Anna Nicole Smith. Meanwhile, the initial briefings on the surge were delivered to empty seats.

But I was successfully poked, prodded, and stamped a-ok, and I got to go to Iraq - for my second tour. While I was there I had a different perspective than Mike Yon. I had a view of the bigger picture, knew how many missions were ongoing, knew where the fighting was, and knew how fierce it was. But a funny thing happened through the summer of '07: all the right numbers fell. Casualties - down, attacks of every sort - down, violence - down. And the right numbers rose: tips from citizens - up, trained Iraqi soldiers - up, and on and on. Amazingly, a much expected "Tet Offensive" immediately prior to General Petraeus' September briefing to Congress didn't happen. More amazingly, "violence" didn't return to high levels during Ramadan (a month that began with the General's briefing and had many folks "in the know" questioning the sanity of those who timed it) either.

Greyhawk saw long ago the narrative the media and the left would make of our victory:

The narrative on Iraq - the one you see in the media, that is - is changing. Claims that "we've lost" and that American soldiers have been beaten by opponents who are righteous heroes or nine-foot tall and bullet proof are being quite subtly shifted to arguments that no potential victory (if even grudgingly acknowledged) could be worth the price. This argument may prove irresistible to those who've invested heavily in defeat.

And we all know who those people are.

We all know that the fact that so much has been accomplished in Iraq doesn't mean the war on terror is over. Danger still exists. We will never live in a perfect world. But we can take a moment to relish that we (along with very brave Iraqi citizens and soldiers) ended a civil war, decimated al-Qaeda there and the Sadrist militia. We can marvel that the Iraqi government has accomplished almost all the legislative benchmarks set by Congress and the Bush Administration.

A page in history is about to turn, and I am so grateful that the last line on that page will read that America never gave up, never backed down, and fought the good fight to victory.

But there is no doubt in my mind that during our lifetime nothing will change between the right and the left. Both sides will retreat in their corners. The left will say Iraq was never worth it, even won. The right will resent the left for believing that.

Only history will tell us if this war was worth it. Only history will judge if the Middle East changed, if the tide turned, and if radical Islam was defeated.

Important To Remember

Speaking before the Center for the U.S. global Engagement, Sen. Joe Lieberman said this regarding Obama:

“What Sen. Obama does not seem to understand is that, had we taken the course he had counseled and retreated from Iraq, the United States would have suffered a catastrophic defeat that would have left America and our allies less safe not just in Baghdad, but in Kandahar and Karachi and Tokyo and London,” he said.

It is fundamental to understand how wrong Obama was on what was the most important foreign policy decision in all of our lifetimes. This speaks volumes on his ability to lead this country.

via FirstRead

"The War Is Over"

And we have won. At least according to one of the most respected journalist covering this war, Michael Yon:

We have won the war in Iraq. By "we" I mean the Coalition and the Iraqis. Unless there is some unexpected reversal, what lays ahead is the challenge of building a better Iraq. There is still violence. We have lost four soldiers to combat this month, but there were times when we lost that many on an average day. There still are attacks, though we have finally reached the point where all that's left are truly "dead-enders." Al Qaeda is still a problem, but their numbers are decreasing in Iraq. The Iraqi people are sick of the violence. The Iraqi Army is filled with courageous soldiers who can fight. It is possible that by the end of the year we can really say, "Mission Accomplished," except for the continued support that Iraq will need.

Personally, my optimism has never been higher for Iraq.

Michael Yon has always been honest, even when it was something we didn't want to hear, like when civil war broke out in Iraq. He gives an honest assessment of Afghanistan that we might not want to hear as well. But I trust him (unlike the mainstream media).

More here.

My heart is truly filled with hope that we have done what needed to be done in Iraq.

No defeat. No surrender. Not this war. Not this time.

Energy Independence. We Can Get There.

Texas Senator John Cornyn (a wonderful true conservative) has Mike Huckabee writing over at his site about energy independence. Huckabee has it right:

We have to explore, we have to conserve and we have to pursue all avenues of alternative energy: nuclear, wind, solar, hydrogen, clean coal, biodiesel and biomass. And while we are at it, let's drill here and drill now!

You can listen more to Senator John Cornyn speak about energy independence below.



There is a misconception that conservatives are all about drilling, but it simply isn't true. Cornyn and others are getting together to figure out ways to find alternative sources of energy, but we can't ignore what we need here and now. We all agree that we need to be less dependent of foreign oil.

Democrats have stood in the way of this independence for many years. The silver lining of this gas crisis may be that we can finally get the public to listen and understand how important it is to depend on ourselves for energy.

Pres. Bush has lifted the Executive Ban on offshore drilling, but Congress needs to take action for this to happen.

Newt Gingrich is also writing over at Cornyn's site and he has discovered that the American people are ready:

Through our polling at American Solutions we have long known that a whopping 81 percent of Americans support developing more American energy, including oil and coal. And this 81 percent majority is made up of 85 percent of the Republicans, 83 percent of the independents and 76 percent of the Democrats surveyed.

We need to strike while the iron is hot. There will be no better time to pressure the Democrats to not stand in the way of America become energy independent. I'm tired of the Democrats using the excuse that any new drilling now will not produce results for five years. So? If we had done this five years ago, then we would have the results now. The Democrats say we can't drill our way to energy independence. Can we try? We can continue to find our way to cleaner nuclear technologies, wind and solar plants at the same time!

Most Americans don't realize that our ban on drilling is in the same gulf that's open to Venezuelans, Indians, Vietnamese, and Cubans. That just doesn't make sense. The time is ripe to drill for ourselves.

And it isn't just about drilling. Sen. John McCain has proposed building 45 new nuclear power plants in America. Obama has simply said that he is “not a nuclear energy proponent.”

Alternative energy research and depending on ourselves for more oil is where we need to go. It's time.

The Left Attacking Obama?

The Obama camp is plenty upset over The New Yorker's front cover this month. The New Yorker claims that the cover is a satirical look at how conservatives are painting Obama and his wife, but I have to agree with Ed at HotAir on this one:

"This makes the third bigoted attack from the Left on Obama. Two weeks ago, it was Ralph Nader acting as the arbiter of black authenticity, and last week it was Jesse Jackson wanting to castrate Obama. One side in this cycle certainly seems obsessed by identity politics, but so far it isn’t the Republicans."
........

"The New Yorker is attacking conservatives, but Obama’s the one taking offense (and for good reason). Obama warned that the Republicans would obsess over his ethnicity, but so far only the mainstream Left has made it an issue."

Remember who was the first to put out a picture of Obama in Muslim garb? That would be Hillary's camp.

And they aren't done yet:

"Operation Chaos may not yet have finished, according to CQ Politics. While Hillary Clinton negotiates for a place of honor at the convention, some of her followers have a more important role in mind for her. They want an open floor vote for the nomination — and think that Hillary could win it."

"We Remained Free"

Anyone who has read my blog these last few years, know that it was stories that I read about the sacrifice and love that occurred during the holocaust that affected me so as a young adult.

It wasn't just the horror that captivated me. It was the fierceness of the human spirit. I am constantly amazed at how some people handle the harshness of life. From people like Tony Snow who faced death, yet remain one of the most optimistic people in Washington D.C., to every day people who face adversity, pain, and hardship with grace and dignity. I have seen it over and over in my life, and there is nothing that I admire more.

Which brings me to the American hostages that were recently freed from Columbia's Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (known as FARC). Intelligence forces freed the hostages by tricking FARC.

The Americans were Marc Gonsalves, Thomas "Randy" Howes and Keith Stansell. I watched their interview on CNN today. I was impressed with the obvious affection they had for one another. They spoke of how each had kept the other strong. The entire story is fascinating, as you might imagine, but they described how they carved chess pieces and drew a chess board. It became a way to escape. But the next thing they said is what got to me the most. I'm paraphrasing, but this is close. "They tried to brainwash us. But we love our country. We remained free."

Even in their captivity, they knew that as Americans, they were free men.

The capacity of man to endure never fails to amaze me. I can only hope and pray that in similar circumstances I would be as strong as these captives were.

Sometimes I get discouraged by the evil in the world. I get discouraged by how low mankind can go to oppress or objectify or destroy innocent people. But then I am reminded by men like Marc, Randy, and Keith, that man can stand up to oppressors. I am reminded that man can be strong and endure under incredible odds.

I am reminded of our unending capacity to love and reach out to one another.

They said that once they have re-connected with family they will ride motorcycles across the country together to remind them of how great a country this is.

It is a dream they had during capture.

Ride free, my friends, Ride free.